Wednesday, January 03, 2007

2006 Comes To An End

Over the weekend I watched news coverage on President Ford, Saddam Hussein, and James Brown. What a way to end 2006! The year ended with the death of a former president that history is now treating more kindly, the death of a dictator that history will never treat kindly, and finally, the death of the Godfather of Soul, a man loved by many. I will miss James Brown. I always loved his music, style, and showmanship plus he was a great, if flawed, human being. Sadly, he's a performer that I never saw live although I have been listening to him since the sixties. Wow! What a groove that man had! I will always remember him bent over, leaving the stage with one of the Fabulous Flames, his backup singers, putting a cape over his shoulders. Then those feet would start moving and he would fling the cape off and get back to the microphone. He was the Godfather of soul...and funk.

The death of President Ford recalled one of my memories from high school. In 1969(?) President Eisenhower died and his body was taken across the country on a funeral train. My good friend Tom and I, along with our girlfriends of the time (Patty and Jennifer?) cut school and drove to a small town somewhere in Indiana where the train would be stopping. We weren't fans of President Eisenhower. It was just a moment in history and we wanted to be there. We made it to the town and saw President Eisenhower's casket, drapped in the American flag, inside the passenger car of the train. Before that, my most vivid memory of a presidential death was in 1963, when I was 12 years old, and President Kennedy was assassinated. I remember watching it on black and white television like it was yesterday.

Building Management confiscated my personal coffee pot yesterday. I was told it was a safety violation and fire hazard. I wish they had told me that in 1989 when I brought it to work. I have mixed emotions. I don't know whether I am angry that I can no longer enjoy the aroma of freshly brewed coffee blends of my choice or happy that it took them so long to catch me. It was a wild chase through parts of three decades, two buildings, eight floors, and more job responsibilities than I can remember. Mr. Coffee leaves behind a partially filled container of ground coffee, some Coffeemate Lite, and a stack of four cup mini filters. Mr. Coffee R.I.P. 1989-2007

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